[Jacob-list] freckles?

[wolfpen]

Thanks all,

There is certainly alot of information out there about freckles.  I'd heard
rumors as to the correlation between leg markings and freckles during
earlier discussions.  I do have one ewe (she's 5 years old now) with black
feet, hock and knee patches and no freckles.  Until this year, when she was
bred to a ram from a heavily freckled line, she has never had a freckled
lamb. This year she had twins, one with no leg markings and no freckles and
one with all the extras plus freckles.
I had heard that the darkening face was an indication that freckling would
show up at a later date - haven't seen that yet, but it probably hasn't been
long enough for me to tell with the one I have with that trait.
The new little boy has black on his hooves, but no other leg markings, so
we'll see what develops.

Also - does the black spotting on the skin always lead to black fiber?  I
have one with black skin spots, but it hasn't shown up in the fiber yet.
He's two.
When people say that freckles show up in the first shearing - does that mean
they actually manifest themselves around that time or is this the first that
they are noticed?  I'm just wondering if I grab this boy at 6 months and do
a complete "freckle search" and don't find any, and he doesn't show the
darkening face or legs, is there a good chance that he will not be freckled,
even though his parents are?  Of course by then his horns will probably be
on backwards or something.

Linda
----- Original Message -----
From: <WenlochFrm at aol.com>
To: <wolfpen at alltel.net>; <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: 10 May, 2000 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] freckles?


> In a message dated 5/9/00 4:57:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> wolfpen at alltel.net writes:
>
> > I don't see one single freckle on this
> >  lamb. With his skin so easy to see, I've given him a thorough exam.  Do
> >  freckles sometimes show up later?  When? How much later?
>
> In my experience the freckling has usually shown up by at least three or
four
> months of age. Some say that freckling present in the first year will
become
> more so as the sheep ages, but I can't say that has been true in my flock.
I
> do have one ewe that is six years old that was free of freckles, but now
has
> some on her face if you want to count that as freckling. And one ram that
was
> heavily freckled as a lamb to the point that the white spotting looked
grey
> has much less freckling now, and the white actually looks white now. He
was
> born in June, so some of the freckling as a lamb may have been caused from
> the sun.
>
> I think it was Joan Horak that said the English believe that freckling is
> linked to  coloring on the legs, and from my experience, I'm inclined to
> agree with that. I love a lot of coloring on the legs and try to breed for
> it, but I keep a couple of rams here that have no leg coloring and are
> freckle free that I can breed back to just in case I get into trouble with
> too much freckling.
>
> Joan Franklin
>